Comments

Comment by Laetand

Drops from the optional boss Gahz'Rankha in Zul'Gurub. While using Poly: Turtle doesn't have any strategic advantages over Pig and Sheep, it's very rare and can help to distinguish multiple CC targets in areas where more than 1-2 sheeps are needed. Plus the turtle is my personal favorite being a mage~

Happy hunting!

Comment by starkill

tome of polymorph turtle dosent help you in the battlefield but like sheep and pig its just a fun thing to get. and if you have two diffrent mages one can use sheep and the other can us turtle seperating them so you know which one to keep polymorphing

Comment by Lightophile

For all you who seek to make a little extra money and fun

Two man this boss - An awerage healer and a decent tank is enough at lvl 70.

Done with 70 Blood elf paladin and 70 Orc warrior (No problem, not even close to dead or running low on mana)

Chance of the book drop is either a happy mage in guild or a happy crew to sell the book which I would say is an easy 1k gold atleast!

Happy Farming!

Comment by spitbag

Easy to farm, easily sold for 2k

Comment by aleols

This is still not BoP and can be traded / mailed / put on AH just as before? Anyone done any of those things to the Tome after drop recently? From what others write here about selling etc I should imagine so, but just checking so I don't stand there with the other char and wont be able to mail it to the mage :)

Comment by Madrox145

At first I agreed with all the lucky mages out there that were fortunate enough to get this drop before the expansion. (and felt that it shouldnt be avaiable at trainer, quest, etc) But its become obvious this is pretty lame, and there is bascially 0% change the average mage to get a hold of this thing now.

The drop rate is still very low, I would be ok with going to ZG to get this if the droprate was resonable (30% or more) then it will only take a few trips. As it is right now, how in the hell do you convince a group of 4 good players and yourself to farm a boss each week just for your 1 drop...oh and maybe the raptor/tiger mount. Its unreaslitic, and hard enough to get people to do ZG these days let alone the out-of-the-way fish boss.

I would suggest some really long ony-style quest chain, but that can done solo like the pig quest. The pig quest was way to easy, and thats why so many mages have it. I say make this one real annoying, and a huge grind. That way not as many mages will be willing to put up with it. Or at least bring a new Poly spell into the game, would be great. Sheep/Pig are so lame now, and everytime I see them it reminds of how I got outrolled on turtle 3 times, and killed the fish boss over 35 times for nothing.

Comment by aleols

Dropped after 9 kills over 2 months killing and confirming that this can still be traded like all the other mage tomes out there and it's very much usable by a Draenei mage and therefor also Blood Elfs.

Comment by aleols

Making this a quest reward would ruin its "epic-likeness". I wanted it and made my Draenei actually for the sole purpose of getting this tome (back when I made her) and after getting to lvl70 and putting together a plan for the reagent ( levitated with my priest and fished ) and getting people in and out in very little time my guild mates were willingly helping me 9 times over 2 months. It was -very- rewarding when it dropped and making this a quest reward should just not be done.

I'm not an expert on the old stuff, but I would say you had to be a bit over avg to get it back before the expansion too.

If you really want this you are very much able to do so at lvl70 with 5+ friends and each attempt takes about 10~15mins from entering ZG until you heartstone/portal. The meeting stone at ZG supports lvl70 and makes you able to gather people faster and makes a huge difference when you are asking idle friends for help that does not really want to fly down to Darkshire/STV to help you.

Lastly I'd agree on maybe, maybe inserting a new poly spell would be better than giving this one to everyone. This one is rare and should stay rare.

Good luck :)

Comment by shmoe010

Got bored today so me (warrior), and my friends (hunter, priest, warlock) went and did the boss and got it to drop for us. Not sure what the drop rate is, but so far we've been offered over 1k gold and we're still taking offers to see how much we can get. Not a bad payout for 15 minutes of work.

People will argue that they shouldn't pay a lot because they can farm it themselves, but the fact is that it is not easy to find a fisherman of high enough skill to do the quest, and then to find another 3 or 4 people to farm the boss with you every three days. Based on Wowhead's drop rate, it would take you a month of continuous farming to get it to drop. In that time, a mage could make way more than 1k gold. =)

Comment by shmoe010

Just to reply to myself, the final going price was 1725g to a very happy mage. =) If you and your friends have some free time, I seriously recommend giving this boss a try.

Comment by tired

You're full of crap on your two man.

Comment by Kalken

I believe this is the only spell in the game, minus AoE buffs for groups, that isnt learned from a trainer or quest. I was very upset when it wasnt added to the trainers with the coming of TBC as Hunter recieved Tranq. Shot whether or not they've ever run MC, now granted Tranq. Shot isnt used much in the game at all Poly: Turtle seems like it should've been taken out of ZG for a trainable spell and perhaps add a Polymorph: Bear Cub or something along those lines into Zul'Aman.

Comment by HordeMole

In 2.4 this tome will be Bind on Pickup. Buy them up now!

Comment by Chachee

I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere, and it's even more incentive to get your own turtle poly: Turtle Polymorph spell randomly creates 1 of 3 differently colored turtles.

There's a green skinned + tan shelled variety (similar to the Speedy pet), there's a red-skinned + brownish shelled one (like Cranky Benj), and then there's my favorite which is sort of like a sea-turtle with a bluish-green color (same model, only colors are different).

Comment by yippumcricket

This is an extremely in demand item, especially on high pop servers like mine. Expect to pay 4000g+.

Comment by Vatenkiest

Is this item still in the game? It's weird to ask but I've had like 3 guildmates say that it's been taken out of the game, but I must have missed that note somewhere. if someone could confirm that or post that they got it recently that'd be neat =P

Comment by fobsen

The item dropped for us today, so yes, its still in the game.

Comment by lorgion

Still in the game, got mine quite awhile ago but a friend got his just one patch or so ago. It's a very nice thing to have. Sets your poly appart from the other mages in the raid etc.

Comment by Masennus

Got this for my mage on the first try. :) Makes other mages in the guild jealous. A couple of them went out and got Poly: Pig so we have a nice petting zoo on TK trash.

Planning on farming some more to try and sell for 3k gold. (1k each for my warrior and priest friends and I.)

Comment by Rhut

Just sold one on Proudmoore for 3k. My buddies do ZG when someone doesn't show for 5's, it's definately worth it :P

Comment by gugukalimero

1. You need a high skilled fisherman (dunno the exact skill required, i am maxed out)2. Go to ZG and fish the pools, you need 5 fishes - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=199753. Go in the north-western part of the lake (Nigel's Point ) and you will find a box.4. Loot the box and bring it's contents to Nat Pagle in Theramore Island5. Now the guy will sell you some barrels in wich you put the 5 fishes you fished earlier, this will be the item you will need to summon Gahz'ranka back at Nigel's Point in ZG.

Tactic:

At Nigel's Point there is a figurine statue. Make sure the tank stays under the statue to avoid being cast in to the air.

Got this baby today!

Me (frost mage), a blue'ish prot warrior and a retri paladin in healing gear spanked this guy...and man it was fun!

Later edit: Seen this Item 1 or max. 2 times at the Auction House. Last time it sold for 4500g. So, if you get this, don't rush and sell it for 1-2k....some have tons of gold an want this, you just have to wait for the right buyer.

Comment by Snaq

I just got this today on my mage, and that means that im a very happy mage.

However, i have a little tip about the fishes needed to summon the boss itself.Since you decided to do this quest i assume you´ll have pretty high fishing skill and are doing the daily fishing quests.A common reward for the fishing quest is Elixir of Waterwalking, bring that when you are gonna fish inside Zul'Gurub to avoid clearing the Crocs.

Our setup was Prot warrior (who was playing a resto druid at the same time) Me, Fire mage and a Hunter (which was playing a resto shaman) at the same time.

It was a bit messy, but we managed to bring him down.

My first trip ever there to farm the Tome, and it dropped and i got it!No Tiger mount tho :(

Comment by Sange

Fought the boss that drops this a few times now. Just got the tome last night from him. If you wipe on this guy, you just blew your chance at getting the tome until the instance resets. Once he is summoned, he has to be killed and cannot be resummoned. I took myself, a tank, and a healer in on one run and despite us being decently geared, we wiped. Problem was that we didn't have enough DPS to bring him down before our healer ran out of mana, despite us all being decently geared. Did it again with two tanks, two healers, and 3 DPS. That was a piece of cake, and a bit overkill. If geared very well, just a tank and healer can take this guy, but I wouldn't suggest trying this way as you only get one try at it every 3 days or so and the tome isn't garunteed to drop. For a raid boss, he's pretty easy.

The Zulian Mudskunk fish that are necesarry to summon him are fished out of the muddy spots of water in the instance. I was able to get them at fishing level 280 with a +75 lure. Someone already posted on how to get the lure to summon this guy, so I wont repeat that one.

Also, to make getting to the boss easier on everyone in the group; as soon as you enter the instance, head either left or right and jump into the water. Hug the cliff sides and you can easily circle the temple in the center to get to Pagle's Point while only encountering a few very easy fish that need to be killed. (first group I went through here with didn't know this shortcut, so we fought our way through.)

I've seen the tome priced in the auction house for as cheap as 800g and as expensive as 4500g (average price seems to be around 1500-2000g). Even at 4500g, it has sold, so this is definately a profitable item to get for anyone, not just a mage.

Comment by silvertide

Wrong,we wiped on him the other day and he just stayed on Pagle's Pointe. He threw my healer into the air and he went splat xP

Comment by Vaugn

You have to kill him before he despawns though. If you enter the instance later you can't resummon him. (Found that out the hard way).

Comment by tlanwarrior

Sold for 2kg after about 5 minutes. I had a druid trying to tell me its worth 40g, and that hes a "Exalted ZG Warrior". If this was true, I dunno. Don't give this for less then 500g. You can make a hell of a profit off this thing.

I also did this with a feral druid, and myself (I'm a Resto Shaman, fully epic, in Kara gear, while my Girlfriend (The Feral Druid) is in a few Kara epics). It was easy and took maybe 20 minutes total to kill the boss, maybe 30+ min for the fishing though.

Comment by SixOneNine

As they said above, you can wipe and he'll still be there. I have this on grind with a few friends. Me tanking (feral), and a priest healer. I typically tank him in my T4ish DPS gear, he hits me for 600-800 . Easy mode with only the two of us (priest ends fights with full mana). Bring an extra DPS if you want it done faster.

Anyone who sells this for less than 2k is silly. Sells for 2k-4k, Gold is just too easy to get these days.

Comment by Venomizer

Can anyone confirm if this still drops if there is no mage present in the group ?

Comment by caffeineaddict

Dropped for me (rogue) and a holy pally (both in BT / Hijal Gear)

We got it our 3rd kill and specifically didn't bring a mage just so we could sell it and not worry about drama

We have only wiped once on this boss, and it was due to fish respawning and putting that 75% armor ignore debuff on me and killing my pallys cast time.

Tanked him with 2pS3 / 2pT6 & the tank trink out of hMT

Comment by spidude

Just dropped for a pug formed by a 66 Mage in SW on Bloodhoof.

I went along on my 70 Holy Pally to act as heals and as the designated fisherman as I was curious as to if it would drop.

Got paid 30G for my troubles but seeing that it sells for over 2K G , i would say that Mage got off cheap :)

Gratz to you Dazart .... turtle to your hearts content :)

Comment by DreedUp

Got it first attempt! Me(frost mage w/700+ dmg) feral druid in cat form, prot war and holy priest. Hoping to sell it for 2900 and put a nice chunk'o'change in all of our pockets. Epic Flyer here i come

Comment by DreedUp

Oh ya and for Blizzard coming out with a new polymorph, maybe crab or murloc, im rooting for crab

Comment by keLston

Gahz is 2 mannable with a healer and any class that is tank capable. I've done it as a druid/warlock pair with the warlock in S2/S3 gear as the standard Soul Link Arena PvP build.

I farm it regularly as a S4/S3 35/23/3 specced warrior and a CoH spec priest in PvE gear (T6ish).

To do it 2 man and prevent the punts and stuff there are specific points you want to stand. By the tents where you summon him, there is a statue with a little protrusion sticking out of it. You want to stand under that, you know you are doing this properly if you are pretty much unable to jump (but instead look like you are hyper-spazzing). This prevents the geysers from knocking you upward and thus losing a ton of aggro.

As the tank, if you face the two tents, the one on the right with the half busted roof is where you want your healer. If your healer stands in the corner that still has a partially intact roof, your healer also will not be punted (test using the same method, you should not be able to jump).

After that it's straight up tank and spank. I don't even do it with a shield or in defensive stance.

Comment by Gono

All 5 Muddy Churning Waters spawns can be fished with a little smart positioning without aggroing the crocs. Just be aware that they move a little once in a while, I learned that the hard way >_<

Comment by Unclelucas

Farmeed this book with a mage,prot warrior and holy pally... farmed 2 times and each time he dropped the book. sold the first one for 3k and the second the mage took it, im really wondering if i just got lucky or its drop rate isnt as low as people think

Comment by Redek

Easy to do with prot warrior and resto shaman.My warrior is badge/karazhan geared. 14k hp, 515def under 20% dodge, parry, 25% block.Shaman 4/8 t6 and some swp itmes. About 2k+healing. He was able to do dps all the time and didnt have any problems to keep me alive. Should be done with kara/badge geared healer imo.

Comment by phille52

This item can go for 5000gold (atleast 3000 and its sold) on Stormscale EU :)

Comment by Shockjock

Agreed, myself (enhancement shaman) and a resto druid farm this regularly. If you kill the 2 pulls up the hill from Nat's point you can park yourself and your healer under the tooth looking things that jut out from the tops of the huts, which will completely negate his knocking you in the air.

Comment by Drinkvendor

GOT IT TODAY, selling it on Akama server for 4400g :P if it doesnt sell i'm just going to use it... i'm selling it for 4400g becuase there are some loaded people out there with tons of gold and nothing to spend it on, like some mage in an end game raiding guild... It's a win-win situation seeing as i'm a mage!

Comment by ibram14

Hi everybody was just wondering when you kill that boss and let's say the tome didn't drop,can you take 5 fishes and resummon him again or you have to wait that instance resets?And can you reset the instance like normal instances?

Thx in advance.

Comment by skincarver

its not worth much in the end for how easy the boss is to farm 2k is a over the top asking price for it

Comment by Kaigami

I've sold this reliably the past 5 times its dropped on Draenor-EU for at least 4k every time (first time it went for 6k)

In these last legs of TBC, gold is easy to come by, and this sells very easily, and very quickly.

Comment by aliss

It's a raid instance on a 3 day timer, so no resets, but you can try every 3 days--we used the 2 days in between to go fish and socialize so we were stocked on mudskunks. XD

This dropped for us last week after about 2 months of fairly dedicated farming (at least one kill per week) for my mage friend. It's adorable and people ask him to duel just so they can be a turtle--and we all rather like the raid, so now we've got another mage in to farm it up. (Heck, expansion coming so soon...may as well have fun.)

Comment by Yurny

anyone got it recently without a mage in group? I did this boss for at least 8 times without mage and it still didn't drop. before it used to drop a lot more....so nerf or just bad luck?

ty in advance

Comment by cywang86

We just killed it without a mage in group and it did drop. Was druid, warrior, rogue, and shaman. The mounts from the other bosses didn't drop though =[

Comment by Yurny

bah did it 2 more times and no book yet, so it's 10 runs in a row it doesn't drop for me...

Comment by Fruitcase

i just did this boss and it dropped this book ( for our mage) , after it we did raptor and he dropped Raptor mount :)

Comment by Rach3l

Is this going to be soloable by a mage at level 80? Was his health nerfed by 30% like all the BC raid bosses in 3.0?

Comment by Swordy

arms warrior and ret paladin 2 man'dgot low on mana but we made it, took about 2 minutes in combat

Comment by Snackula

This seems to have a rather high drop chance. I've killed him two times in "Burning Crusade". Dropped both times.

Comment by ozweepay

I have been two-boxing the fish boss every reset for months; managed to get 8 tomes in 45 kills and sold them for 3k gold each.

It's my belief that Poly: Turtle will go down in popularity now, and I won't be farming this item any longer.

Comment by Zenger

I'm not so sure that this will become useless so soon.

The new poly glyphs are quite the rage for now, but in a few months everyone will have one. It'll probably be such a regular thing in WotLK that this will once again rein supreme as the mage polymorph, and regain its past value.

Not to mention new players brought in by the expansion won't even know ZG exists, let alone a cool rare turtle polymorph. Who wouldn't want that? Lets hope the new fishing achivement for the title "Salty," which requires the summoning of Ghaz'ranka, won't make this any less desireable.

It dropped for me when I was getting the achivement (Ret pally tank, under-geared priest heals, and two locks for DPS) as we went to hit the famous mount bosses. No real trouble, bigger than i expected =P

Good luck farmin this baby, - Zenger - Magtheridon

Comment by Deldray

Me and my guild farmed this for our guild leader over the course of a few months. It was a pretty annoying grind. We wanted it to be a surprise, so even on the occasion that we did get a group capable of downing the boss, we sometimes had to hearth/portal prematurely so that he didn't see us in ZG (We all knew he would want to come so as to have a chance at the tome). Appropriately timed, we managed to get the tome just before LK release month. We presented it to him during a LK launch party hosted by him. He was a very happy mage (even though mages just got the penguin poly). ^.^

Comment by Glowface

Comment by dustdog

the legitimacy of serpent being in game is still questionable, any person who's claimed to have it has not provided any amount of proof to back it up.

Comment by impule1337

me and my guild farm this every time it resets.... so far it has dropped 3 times out of 4 which is not bad seems like luck was on our side :D and on the server Duskwood it sells from 3000g-6000g...so this is actually one of the easiest way to make money....might do dailies but if your lucky like my guild and get it to drop 3 times out of 4 youll make a lot more money then you whould ever doing dailies...and Wotlk has been out for a lil while now and the price hasnt gone down and since i dont think much (or maybe no other) guild farms this boss for the tome there is limited supply and also no competition.

Comment by panzers

Got this today, first kill.

Solo'd as 80 Holy Paladin. Very easy but took quite some time due to my pathetic DPS ;)

I tanked him on the ground, my back to the pillar in Nagle's Pointe. Tanking him there avoided the punt.

Good luck!

Panzers 80 Holy Paladin, Skywall

Comment by brotos

Lots of people bawk at the asking price for this little guy. Most of the time I see them go for about 2500g.

You must have (or someone in your raid) an adequate fishing skill. You must loot the quest and travel clear to dustwallow marsh to turn it in, then buy the barrels, head back to zg, farm the bait, kill the boss, rinse and repeat till it drops. The instance resets every three days. :\ not super "farmable" if you know what i'm getting at.

Now compare that with the other polys that can just be bought with cash. Personally, I am farming this for my mage, but if i get the gold and see one in the ah before i get it you better believe i'll shell out the cash.

p.s. i'm on my 3rd or 4th kill and no luck yet.

Comment by sl0Puffman

Definitely not able to be soloed by a mage at level 80. Gahz still hits for several thousand on cloth and has way too much health to be able to be simply zerged to death. Bring a friend.

Comment by Dunbarke

This boss needs 2 regeants to summon, 5 Zulian mudskunks (fished from muddy churning waters Req. 330 fishing) and a mudskunk lure (obtained from nat pangles toolbox at, pangles point in zg, which starts the chain) Ghaz Ranka is easily 2 manned, me (80 moonkin) and a 72 DK easily 2 manned it, we farm it every 3 days great way to make cash if u need epic flyier, pre Wrath i farmed 6 and sold for 3k each, a nice profit for about 1 month of work, and me happy with 2 epic flyiers. I would highly recommend people take the time to get the mats for it.

Comment by Healingproof

Haha, I got it for 500 g from AH. Am i lucky or has the price really sunk that much since WotLK?

Comment by mixerman3d

I found that animals that are already turtles are actually immune to this Polymorph...including hunters pets when they are turtles.

Comment by GrimbleGromble

The first time I was in a group that killed Gahz'ranka this thing dropped. I was ecstatic, especially when I out-rolled the only other mage in the group. Then the master-looter gave it to the other mage instead. I was not happy.

Comment by Sethra

Either the drop rate for these has increased or I am incredibly lucky.

I multi-box, so I can farm it solo. I have killed Gahz'ranka 14 times since Wrath came out and he dropped the book 6 times. One of those I used on my own mage, the rest I sold.

There's at least one or two other people on my server who farm these, and I am on a low population server to start with, so demand is way down from the huge numbers people are talking about in other comments. I've only been able to get 500-800g per tome.

I'm actually mostly going in there to farm the rare mount drops, but I figure I might as well kill Gahz'ranka while I'm in there...

Comment by kryptikz

I bought this for 200G on al'akir Eu

Comment by Jonae

I just solo'd him on my 80 resto druid. He definately still drops the tome, I've killed him 5 times before, so it was nice to finally get the tome. I gave it to my buddy, so hopefully it'll drop again when I go back with my other toons. Happy hunting, Jojo

Comment by AlicanC

Today I've bought the tome for 150g on EU-Talnivarr via C.O.D.

Looks like it's not "easy 2k gold" anymore...

Comment by decanus

Comment by faberin

Successfully solo'd as an 80 elemental shaman, gear score only about 2100, all you gotta do is position yourself underneath the nose of the big statue on pagel's point after summoning so you dont get launched. Burn heal burn heal repeat, with water shield up I ended the fight with 100% mana and HP, and I got a turtle, ezmode. Unfortunately I cant do the same to the tiger or raptor boss :p

Comment by PilsnerDk

The buyout price listed here is quite wrong. I just sold it for 400g on EU-Moonglade.

Comment by lillicat

A few days ago the buyout price listed was around 300g. At the time the OP commented the buyout price was listed as 1c, which is obviously wrong since it's less than the vendor price.

Comment by ozweepay

Well, my above comment was downrated into oblivion, but I was right: this tome has lost a TON of value. It used to sell for 3k gold on my server and now commonly goes for 500g or less. The real killer was the achievement involving Gahz'ranka, which meant a lot of people farming him and a lot more tomes in the economy.

Comment by BrollyLSSJ

Comment by Zieda

I heard you like sheeping, so I sheeped your sheep so you can sheep while you sheep...?

Sheep is an extremely odd word. Sheeeeeeep...

Comment by Thigrai

5.9k GS Mage tried to solo this today. Arcane specced with Frost as offspec. With Arcane i'm safe for as long as mirror image and can take out about 240k of his HP after which my clones die and he starts throwing me around. With Frost i get to kite him around a bit and it has a lot more survivability but it doesnt compensate for the lack of DPS. I called for a Guildie that could hold him off me for a bit more and got him down. I got the tome on my first kill =]

Comment by Eliminister

i would cry if you can't make more than 1k gold in a week, let alone a whole month. christ. I can get almost 2k in 2 days only on 2 chars, doing dailys and nothing else. people act like gold is *so hard to get*. psh, i'd gladly spend 1k for this tome, any day of the week, rather than have the headache of trying to farm it.

Comment by ZeroEdgeir

And you do realize the comments above are like about 2 years old, or more? Patch 2.1.3 was awhile ago compared to 3.3.5 that we are at now.

Back then, making 1000g that easily, was somewhat a big deal.

Comment by Varllok

It would be wise to keep one of these in your bank, once Cataclysm hits Zul'Gurub is no longer going to be a raid instance and they haven't mentioned much after that such as the fate of the mounts and the polymorph tome. But if my hunch is correct and its no longer obtainable, then it would be worth quite a bit of gold.

Comment by vickieanne

Very easy to solo with a shadow priest - only time I've ever died is when I aggroed a load of crocodiles and they bit my sorry behind. Not sure if this is the best way to do it, but I just tried to stay in the water as much as possible to avoid fall damage when he threw me around.

Took me about 8 tries to get the tome, but now I have a very happy mage :)

Comment by Phunbaba

There's a statue on the place where you throw the lure... I just get under the nose of that statue and I don't fly up at all, so I don't take fall damage. It's better this way because you don't lose dps time flying up into the air.

Comment by Azurestar

ZG will be gone in Cata. Farm tomes again.Keep the tomes in your bank for a year or so and I think you'll notice an increase in value once more.

Comment by Miinii

with ZG being taken out is this going to be removed from the game or will you be able to train it?

Comment by hollin

^

Comment by Dahork

Will this be removed in cataclysm since the remove of ZG?, will they completely remove the whole thing or just the access to get it?.

Comment by Ethlin

I have run ZG a lot, but only the past four runs I have summoned the boss since I stopped being lazy and actually leveled my fishing. The tome dropped for the first three kills, so idk if the drop was increased or not.

Gave one to my mage, one to a friends mage, and I still have one. Idk what I should do, is it going to be in Cata? If not, the price will go up. Is it going to be trainable in Cata? If so I should sell it beforehand.

If anyone has info on this it would be great.

Comment by Dahork

Confirmed from a GM that only the source of this item will be removed.

Comment by drpibb

*MESSAGE TO ALL MAGES* If you are interested in getting this do so before cata because this instance will be REMOVED.! Also I will assume that the price of this will skyrocket over time, due to the high demand but low supply, unless this item is somehow attainable in cata (via vendor or another boss drop?)

Comment by Chungking

Maybe it will not be available in Cata. Someone posted above that a GM confirmed this, GM's dont decide what will be changed in WoW or not.

I think that GM was only guessing, but! Blizzard has said if there is anything you want from Vanilla WoW, now is the time to get it.

It will not be worth less in Cata', but I would think twice about buying 4-5-10 of these off AH for 500g each, we are likely to see a new cute polymorph of some kind, and how many different polymorphs does a mage need? :)

So! If you are in ZG farming the mounts, or for the minipets, or for the first time in there for the achieve, or whatever reason, fish up some Mudskunk, toss the barrel, kill the hydra and keep this book, just in case.

A few months into Cata' or maybe a year, try selling this for 5000gold+ , if it has been removed from the game.

Comment by mutilatespam

Once you have your 5 Zulian Mudskunk and toss the barrel into the water, if you watch where it lands you can see it floating, run and click it to instantly get another 5 Zulian Mudskunk, saves you fishing for more the next time your there (or incase for some reason you die)

Comment by Ecwfrk

The GM only confirmed that the source of the spell would be removed from the game. That's something we already know to be true, Gahz'ranka is being removed.What the GM was saying is that if you have the book or the spell already, those will not be removed from the game. It's not a guess, that's how it is on the PTR and in the beta (ZG was still in earlier builds and there are chars with it) and Blizz doesn't usually delete things people have already obtained.

What we don't know is if the spell will be obtainable in Cataclysm through means other than people who farmed the book pre-Cataclysm.

As for the cute polymorph, Mages will have a Glyph of the Monkey (it's available on the 4.0.3 PTR) that causes Poly: Sheep to turn things into a monkey (it looks a lot like the baby monkeys in Shalozar).

And Want > Need in WoW. If the spell is not obtainable in Cata, 5k gold will be an extreme bargain for it.

Comment by Chills

This item is removed from the game in Cataclysm, and is obviously quite valuable as a result.

I bet you could get 5k for one now and even more after Cataclysm drops.

Comment by wowogamer

Well, I did this after reading about the "get your 5 fish back" trick. I got my 5 fish back, right, but the boss didn't spawn. So it was kinda useless as the only thing I got from this was a lost barrel.

Comment by Paulosio

Good to farm this now and store it in the bank a while. When ZG becomes a none raid zone this book should be worth a lot of gold unless they make it obtainable from a new source.

Comment by ZotNagrand

4.0.3 will see the end of Zul'Gurub, and thus, this tome's source.

If you acquire this tome before Cataclysm hits, treasure it, for its pages may as well be gold leaf.

Edit: Nevermind, Blizzard have stated they will add another way to obtain the tome at a future date.

Comment by maomao

Back in BC, I camped this with a friend every lock out for a few months, because the friend wanted to give it to his wife who played a mage. We fell out of touch and more than a year and a half later, I started farming ZG for Zandalar rep on my shaman and it dropped on the first kill.

RNG has a mean sense of humour.

Comment by omglolboom

I just did a run for the fishing achievement before cata and dropped this.Looking at the recent post, I should save the book for cata as the price will go UUUP! sweeeet!

Comment by Drood

It MIGHT become unobtainable once cata hits. However, knowing blizz and the fact that it hates people that do scheming things like squirreling it away, I'll go ahead and make a guess that they'll probably make it a glyph/purchasable from a vendor/purchasable from a class trainer. So don't take that gamble too lightly. However, I could be wrong and this thing could end up being the most valuable in-game drop.

Comment by Saktira

Lylirra, Blizzard PosterAs stated in the Under Dev page (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/), patch 4.0.3 brings about The Shattering, a cataclysmic event that will forever change the face of Azeroth. As we prepare to raise the level cap and introduce two new races with the Cataclysm expansion, it's important to keep in mind that the game world is going through tremendous changes that will affect the availability of certain rare mounts and items.

Tome of Polymorph: Turtle:This tome will continue to be available through other means.

Comment by CptCaveman

Comment by adrenalize

Has since been confirmed that this will be available through other means, however, no word on what may be.

Comment by ourodot

It's ok, I only have about 14 in the bank.

Comment by btbam006

As stated from a blizzard employee...

As stated in the Under Dev page (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/), patch 4.0.3 brings about The Shattering, a cataclysmic event that will forever change the face of Azeroth. As we prepare to raise the level cap and introduce two new races with the Cataclysm expansion, it's important to keep in mind that the game world is going through tremendous changes that will affect the availability of certain rare mounts and items.

Swift Zulian Tiger Zul'Gurub is changing from a raid to a leveling zone in 4.0.3, and this mount will no longer be obtainable.

Swift Razzashi Raptor This mount will also no longer be obtainable after the change to Zul'Gurub.

Razzashi Hatchling With the change to Zul'Gurub this non-combat pet will no longer be obtainable.

Tome of Polymorph: Turtle This tome will continue to be available through other means.

Crusader's White/Black Warhorse and Swift Alliance Steed/Swift Horde Wolf As the attempt-based tribute system is being removed from Heroic Trial of the Crusader, the Argent Crusade Tribute Chest will no longer spawn, and these mounts will no longer be obtainable

Reins of the Blue Drake This mount will once again be available from defeating 10-player Malygos without needing to use the Dungeon Finder. The Reins of the Azure Drake will only be available on 25-player Malygos.

Mimiron's Head This mount will change to be a very low drop chance when defeating 25-player Yogg'Saron with no Keepers assisting you

Invincible This mount will change to be a very low drop chance when defeating Heroic 25-player Lich King

Although we have no current plans to introduce new ways to obtain the Zul'Gurub mounts, pets, and the tribute mounts, they may return should we find a place where they fit in the future.

If you went crazy stocking up on them in the mean time, sell em before it is too late!

Comment by Saktira

If you went crazy stocking up on them in the mean time, sell em before it is too late!

We don't know how they are going to make it available thought, i could be a harder way than as now.

Comment by btbam006

You make a good point, I only have 1 left and I spent 1k to get it hoping to get another 3k out of it until I found out they were keeping it in game, now my server is competing to sell them all out, I am having trouble getting rid of mine for 1.5k. Oh well, ya win some, ya lose some. I guess I will wait to see what happens, I am sure it will be difficult to obtain though.

Comment by suprimex

is it still obtainable in Cata ?

Comment by Pyrefox

Nigel's Point is the Alliance village in Desolace. I think you mean Pagle's Pointe.

Comment by blupache

If you went crazy stocking up on them in the mean time, sell em before it is too late!

I won't be selling mine. Consider the ways in which they could reintroduce the item:

If could be a rare drop from somewhere. In which case obtaining it is likely to be at least as difficult as it currently is. I just don't see them being likely to turn it into a starting zone quest reward or anything like that, so it's likely to maintain roughly it's "traditional" value in that circumstance.

Or it could be sold by a vendor. This is probably the best case scenario for those of us with spare tomes on hand. Tome of Polymorph: Black Cat sells for 2,500g from a vendor in WotLK and overall prices will be inflated in Cataclysm, so while the value will be capped by the vendor price that vendor price is likely to be substantially higher than people are currently panic-selling poly: turtle for.

Comment by Cellaxise

The serpent one was removed from the game... there WAS one at one point (at least on PTR)... then Blizz quickly realized it wasnt that great being that once activated it was very small and blended in with other serpents and hunter traps too easily. lol

And to

By BrollyLSSJ on 04/05/2010 (Patch 3.3.3)You forgot the Polymorph Rabbit

Dude really? read the dates of the post that you added too. He didnt "forget" the rabbit poly... When he posted this the rabbit poly didnt exist in game. It wasnt added until Spring of 09.

Comment by chop360

Comment by Chimerius

Comment by Viix

I knew it. Didn't I say there was something about that sunflower :?

Comment by sorsa

Hi, excelent points there sir.

Even in the (for sellers unfortunate) case that the item might becomes semi-easily obtainable from a vendor, they will likely first be tied to a certain faction reputation, if paying 3-4k helps to skip this rep grind I'm sure there will be some with loose coin who are willing to pay.

And if it is not tied to a faction reputation, then as said it will be made a money sink of at the very least a thousand or two, hopefully.

Comment by mostpsp

I fished one up about an hour after launch in Uldum. From the eel fishing pools. Surprised the hell outta me that's for sure.

Comment by Apiecost

I just fished this up in Deepholm from an Albino Cavefish pool. Haven't been able to determine a drop rate yet - will update if I come across this info.

Comment by Trilless

Now obtained from fishing in Pools. I've caught two on the way to 525 fishing.

Comment by hailjh

Tome of Polymorph: Turtle is now fished up in the world in Cataclysm. I fished one up in Twilight Higlands from a pool.

Comment by carxal

Fished it up in an Albino Cavefish School in Deepholm

Comment by amaiawa

I fished this out of a Mountain Trout School in Nordrassil. Probably around the 10th one I fished out of with 220 skill.

Comment by BearODice

I just fished this out of an Algaefin Rockfish school in Twilight Highlands.

Comment by Jorisan

I fished up the "Tome of Polymorph: Turtle" from a school of Cavernfish Albino in Deepholm last night. (Sat, Dec 11, 2010). So despite ZG's removal, this item has NOT been removed from the game. Yay, Blizz!

Comment by Warno

You can get the tome from fishing now (I got it in twilight highlands)

Comment by cawfee

Just fished one up from a Mountain Trout school in Mt. Hyjal.

Comment by Anaranth

I can confirm that this polymorph tome still exists. I just fished this up out of a highland guppy pool in Twilight Highlands. It was a pretty nice surprise since I didn't get the tome the last time I killed Gahz'Rankha.

Comment by BartmanDK

I just fished up this item from a Highland Guppy School in Twilight Highlands, so i guess they changed this to drop from fishing schools

Comment by Shot

Just fished this up from a Highland Guppy pool in Twilight Highlands, fishing skill 315, no +fishing enchants/other

Comment by ElmoW

Found in a pool of Blackbelly Mudfish in Uldum

Comment by Znuff

As of Cataclysm, this item drops from FISHING. A guildie fished it in Uldum in open sea waters.

Comment by VoodooDues

This is still available in Cataclysm. Just fished one of these up out of a Blackbelly Mudfish fishing node in Uldum. It'll make a nice xmas gift for my boyfriend's mage. Happy hunting :)

Comment by daryn

Just fished up the Tome from fishing in Twilight Highlands. Betting it's a rare catch from fishing pools, I'm positive this will be confirmed later.

Comment by Felicitas66

Just now, playing in live v. 4.3.13329 with ZG gone from the game but with Wowhead not having updated that Tome of Polymorph: Turtle is available from any other source than this boss in ZG, my husband got it just randomly fishing. He was in Twilight Highlands but I don't suppose that really matters because I am assuming this has become a random world drop now.

Comment by Dizzywix

I fished up this tome today in a pool of fish in the Twilight Highlands. That means fishing is one way to get it, although I don't know if it's the only way.

Comment by SpareSimian

Comment by redheadsRbetter

Ok, since Cata, and ZG is gone my question is, Does this polymorph drop still exist?

Comment by yellowm

This item now appears to drop from fishing.

I got one fishing from a school of Albino Cavefish in Deepholm. Unsure of whether it is fished out of schools only, or can drop from fishing anywhere in the Cataclysm zones.

I apologize if this is redundant information!

Comment by Baini

As of 4.03 this item is obtained through fishing.Myself i got this from a Albino Cavefish School in Deepholm.

Comment by Iceveiled

fished one up just now from a fathom eel swarm in Tol Barad Peninsula

Comment by Rodafaran

I just got one of those while fishing in a Fathom Eel Swarm in Tol Barad Peninsula.

Too bad I already have 4 of those on my bank, and I've tried to sell them for quite some time, but no-one wants them >-<

Comment by octobersong

This is still obtainable in Cataclysm.

Just thought I would mention; my boyfriend fished one up in Twilight Highlands, from a Highland Guppy pool. Capped base fishing skill 525, with +5 fishing from hat and +40 from fishing pole, for 570 total. He'd fished just over 1200 successful casts in pools when he got the tome.

Comment by nikjan002

Comment by Paegan

For people who spent 1000's of gold stockpiling them before Cata? Yes, but too bad, that's the risk you take with AH speculation.

I got one from a Fathom Eel pool in Tol'Barad after less than 100 total pool casts btw, random is random.

Comment by Contritus

Guildy fished one up in Uldum. I would assume it has a chance to drop in the other new zone waters as well.

Comment by Machiavari

Fished this little lovely up today in Twilight Highlands At Dragonmaw Port from an Algaefin Rockfish.

Comment by Rodafaran

I just got one of those while fishing in a Fathom Eel Swarm in Tol Barad Peninsula.

Too bad no one wants those on my server, got 4 of them on my bank :P

Comment by arkivx

I got this from fishing a fathom eel school today in Tol Barad.

Comment by Kyokun

This is now fishable in Cataclysm. I just fished one up from a Fathom Eel Swarm.

Comment by hedleyazg

Got one fishing from a pool in the Tol Barad Peninsula.

Comment by beckiesuedalton

^^^^ Dead link. If you can find the blue post again, could you paste in the relevant text from it?

Thanks. :)

Comment by elcius

This item is still obtainable, I just fished one out of a Fathom Eel pool in Tol Barad Peninsula.I had 4 left over in my bank already from ZG, expecting them to become very rare.

Not that i was trying or anything, i belive i have fished well over 20 stacks of eels from pools in TB before i got this while working on That's A Lot of Bait, which means it is at least still some-what rare.

Comment by DenofLions

This tome is now obtained from fishing.

Just fished one out of the pool "Fathom Eel Swarm" in Tol Barad.

Comment by Joddie

I thought obtaining this was lost forever, untill I fished it up from a pool of Fathom Eel in Tol Barad just now!

At the least it is a rare drop from fishing in high-level fishing pools, but it might be that it's just a rare drop from any fishing.

Comment by Ionox

I just fished this baby up in mount Hyjal out of a school. 1k gold on my server!

Comment by Raaga

I fished this up today from a fathom eel swarm in Uldum.

Comment by Olehenrich

I fished this from a debris pool in Tol Barad Penninsula at Willson Shipyard. So work on that Seafood Magnifique!

Comment by MoneyLoo

I just fished this up from an albino cavefish pool in deepholm in the fungal deep cave.

Comment by Kackeroach

Just got this now (4.0.6) while fishing Fathom Eels in Uldum. So now anyone should be able to get it (with some luck).

Comment by Ficksquoose

This item became unavailable when Zul'Gurub closed with the release of Cataclysm. Is there word yet as to whether it will be returning in any form when patch 4.1 rolls out?

Comment by Murex

Unavailable from that source, perhaps. Still very much available as a random drop from fishing pools. Just fished one up earlier this evening in Uldum.

Comment by Krayt

Since there was no real easy to find post on this page on the matter, I'll make a lil post right here.

This tome is still available in cataclysm, I got one today from fishing in a school of Blackbelly Mudfish, I don't know if fishing pools is the only source but there you go. It is still possible to obtain it.

Comment by KleverGuyy

I just fished this up in Twilight Highlands from a Highland Guppy pool.

Comment by Dimnz

Not really sure If I got this cheap but it costed me 100g from a guyplease tell me the price of this thing I'm just curious

Comment by nephrite

The price of it is set only by how much you love turtles, friend.

Comment by youf133

I managed to fish this up from a Fathom Eel pool in Tol Barad Peninsula while doing my dailies. It really surprised me considering how much question there was regarding whether this would exist after 4.1 hit and Zul Gurub went from raid to 5-man. I already had bought one on the AH after 4.1 and paid quite a bit for it just so I had some variety in my Polymorphs. Now I'm just wondering if I should sell it now and get some money back or hold on to it in case it "leaves" again and then sell it for a fortune?

Comment by Coughsyrup

I fished one up in a Highland Guppy fishing swirl in Twilight Highlands. I was only skill level 190 when this occured and I was wearing only a fishing hat, a strong fishing pole, and no lure.

Comment by Andygorus

For those of you who found this during Cataclysm and didn't specify, What class are you?

I'm just wondering if I should fish with my mage, who's a noob, or my non-mage, awesome fisherman.

Comment by Bsmx93

I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this... but the sound effect of the spell is extremely... strange. It sounds like someone gurgling into the mic.

Comment by voduun

Just caught the tome with my druid in Uldum, having a fishing skill below 160. All I had was the NPC sold +5 Fishing Pole.

Comment by Kate452

Just picked this up from Blackbelly Mudfish School in Uldum. I thought I finally got the Sea Turtle because I only saw blue at first, but I was still happy to get this baby. Now to use it in BGs. =D Oh yeah, I am a mage.

Comment by 8700kasper

Just fished one from a Highland Guppy School :)

Comment by Siigari

What is this doing in Azshara's loot table?

Comment by Luxatos

I was hoping for a Sea Turtle, but Blizzard gave me a book about turtles instead. Such a tease.

Comment by Robsbrat

Just fished one up in Uldum, fathom eel pool by The Cursed Landing. Second time I have fished one up!

Comment by joshmullis

Caught mine on Tol Barad Peninsula in a Fathom Eel pool.

Comment by Zyamaia

I got it while fishing for Deepsea Sagefish. Like Berserk said I didn't know it dropped from fishing either.

Comment by Turboknight

Got one trying to get the sea turtle ....... how ironic

Comment by westonjust

Ironicly, I was fishing for the turtle, then I got this, I was very upset and went kinda rage mode, then 3 cast later I got the mount! :)

Comment by Thordra

This used to be fished up in the old 25 man level 60 raid Zul'Gurub before it was changed to level 85. It dropped off of the boss Gahz'ranka which required 5 mudskunks and 1 mudskunk lure to summon. Mudskunks were found in Muddy Churning Waters. if you fished him up you got the achievement Deadliest Catch which would now be in your feat of strength achievement section

Comment by Karmandie

I already had this spell on my mage from Gahz'ranka (may he rest in pieces) but still fished it up in Deepholm a few days ago, about five years after I'd already learned it.

Not bragging here--just wanted to let you know you can still obtain this tome even if you already know the spell, in case anyone wondered if there was a restriction on fishing it up after learning it (as in the case of Weather-Beaten Journal.)

Comment by stefedawn

Do you have to be on a mage to get this?

Comment by piediddly

To confirm, I just fished this tome up in the Twilight Highlands around the Dragonmaw Port docks (Alleria server). Obtained it after catching 79 Deep Sea Sagefish, 22 Volatile Water & 54 Highland Guppies, all from their respective pools. I was on my Paladin, so again, no you don't have to be using a Mage in order to get this tome. Good luck and happy fishing!

Comment by Naenthos

Since the tome (and the turtle mount) can be fished out of any pool from Cataclysm, you can make routes fairly easily.

I'm currently fishing in Uldum and my route is as follows:

Starting from Ramkahen, I move down the river to the sea (where the river splits I go along the north-east side of the Lost City so I can easily cover the delta). Then I go west, following the coastline up to about Schnott's Landing. Then I travel a bit, following the mountains until I reach the Oasis of Vir'sar, go through the oasis, leaving it at the northern canal at the Obelisk of the Moon and then down back to Ramkahen.

Though you could theoretically try this with a land mount, the pools on the coastline are far easier to reach with a flying mount. Not to mention making it easier to avoid all the mobs.

Comment by vapers

Just did 300 schools in Uldum with no luck.

Mage.

Looks like it's going to take longer than I thought...

Comment by FireFox1

This tome may also be purchased on the Auction House for those who don't wish to fish.